ROAD HandyPC S101 / S101K

Presumably
cancelled17th August 2006

Note: There has been no status update
from ROAD since 2007, so we assume that this handset
is cancelled.

At first glance, the ROAD S101 looks
like a new version of the Nokia
9500, but it isn't. In fact, the S101 is a Linux
powered device from a German startup called ROAD GmbH
(ROAD stands for Remote Office Access Devices).

ROAD are marketing the 210 gram S101
as a tiny pocket based PC rather than a phone, and it
certainly has impressive credentials.

Inside the S101 is a 620x240 pixel display,
which (unlike the Nokia 9500) is touch sensitive. There's
a full keyboard which looks a little more usable that
the 9500, plus it comes with WiFi, quad-band GSM, GPRS
and EDGE support (but not 3G).

The
interface on the S101 is Qtopia, which is specifically
designed for handheld Linux devices (there's a development
environment called Qtopia
Greenphone to help developers create and port applications).
Out of the box, the ROAD S101 is bundled with a web
browser, email client, Microsoft Office viewer, drawing
application, MP3 player and a set of PIM functions.

The ROAD S101 is based around the pretty
standard Intel Xscale PXA 263 processor running at 400MHz.
It has 64Mb of RAM, plus 64MB Flash and the internal
storage can be expanded with SD cards. The S101 scores
well in connectivity too, with Bluetooth, infra-red
and USB 2.0 connections. Talktime is quoted as 4 hours
when in use as a phone, with up to 10 days standby.
In "PC mode", the S101 has 5 hours of operation
plus up to 30 days standby time. We understand that
there's an optional 2 megapixel camera too. The S101K
adds added "encryption" to the standard S101.

Inevitably, the ROAD S101 will be compared
with the Nokia
9500 Communicator. In many ways, the S101 is pretty
similar to the 9500 - both pitched at a mobile computing
market rather than a mobile phone market. The S101 has
an edge in hardware terms over the 9500, but then the
9500 was announced back in February 2004.

Crucially though, the Nokia 9500 (and
the 9300
and 9300i)
were never huge successes for Nokia, and as a result
Nokia ceased development of the Symbian Series 80 platform
on which those phones are based. But then, out of the
blue, Nokia produced the Linux based Nokia
770 device. It's not hard to image that the next
generation 9000 series Communicator would be something
very similar the the ROAD S101.

So, this is an interesting and capable
device that's pitching to what it currently a pretty
small market. Perhaps the ROAD S101 will be good enough
to persuade people to ditch their laptops and go with
an ultra-portable Linux device. If not, then ROAD have
a larger version of the S101 called the L101 under development
which might appeal more to notebook users.